Rising Again
by tan90
Summary: When Cloud chases Sephiroth into a storm, a wild tornado whisks him away from Gaia, and awakens in Ylisse, with only fragments of his memores. Cloud accompanies Chrom, the Ylissian tactician (here labeled as Lucas), and the rest of the Shepherds to find his way home. On his journey, Cloud meets and old friend and makes some new enemies. Sadly, his quest back home needs a detour.
1. Sephiroth's Storm

**Author's Notes: **

**Ooh. A crossover story. I've got some great ideas, the story will mostly revolve around Fire Emblem: Awakening's storyline, but it will have some**  
**FFVII elements. The Avatar (Robin) will be named Lucas, kinda like a male name of Lucina? Oh and this story takes place after the events of FFVII, but before Advent Children, and of course, it's AU-ish.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII nor Fire Emblem: Awakening. I don't own anything of importance, ok? **

Such a nice smell. The fragrance of flowers filled the air of the church. He hated it. It's not that he hated the smell per se, it's just that it reminded him of some bitter-sweet memories. Memories of a cheery flower girl in which he could only get so close to. Memories of a flower girl who is gone...forever. The only thing he had left of her was her staff, the Princess Guard and her ribbon, in which he left on the flower bed of the church  
with a picture of him and her on a date at the Golden Saucer.

And of course, "he" was Cloud Strife, Ex-SOLDIER of Shin-ra, and protector of the life stream. Cloud visited the church in sector 6 every weekend.  
He took care of the flowers while she was gone. But she's not really gone, right?

Just then, there was a thunderous boom outside. 'It sounds like its coming from outer-Midgar' Cloud thought. He left the church and went through the of sector six to the outskirts of Midgar. A raging storm was approaching the slums. At the center of the storm, a barely visible figure with long silver hair. The One-Winged Angel. Walking ever so slowly. Masamune in hand. It seemed like he was directing the storm.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud yelled. He hopped on the Fenrir and drove toward Sephiroth, who was waiting in the eye of the storm. He was facing away from Cloud. Every second he got closer, his vision got more hazy. At this point, Cloud could barely see him, his vision was completely blurred, his ears were ringing from the deafening roar from the... tornado? A wild whirlwind had appeared out of nowhere and whipped him off his bike, and he dropped his First Tsurugi.

Everything went black.

This was 2 years ago.

"It's to HOT!" Lissa screamed. "And I have blisters on my feet forming faster than worms after heavy rain!" Chrom rolled his eyes, Lucas only laughed and Frederick tried to give her a pep talk.

"It's not that bad, milady." Frederick reasoned. "Haven't I already told you that hardship builds character?"

"I don't see _you_ walking, Frederick! All you do is prance around with your horse."

"Erm. My armour is much to heavy to continuously walk. It can get... tiring very quickly." Frederick reasoned.

"Suuuurrreee..."

"Hey guys! We're almost there!" Lucas interrupted. "Ylisstol is up ahead."

"C'mon. Emm is waiting for us, Lissa." Chrom said as they hurried to the castle.

At last they reached the castle town. Everyone in the market made way for the shepherds. Whispers of Prince Chrom always filled the air when they visited this village. When they reached the grand door, Lissa looked ready to cry, but the thought of seeing her sister kept the waterworks from flowing.

"BIG SIS!" Lissa squealed as she ran to her sister and gave her a big hug.

"Hello Lissa, hello Chrom." Emmeryn greeted with her elegant smile. Almost everyone adored Emmeryn for her beautiful physique and even more beautiful personality. Her very being represented peace. "You must be Lucas. I've heard many great things about your tactician skills." Emmeryn spoke to Lucas.

"Milady." Lucas got on one knee and bowed his head.

"You've been around Chrom and Lissa for quite some time now, haven't you noticed how our family isn't much for formalities?" Emmeryn smiled to Lucas

"Uh, yes. I'm sorry. I've never been in the presence of Her Excellency."

"It's quite alright. You don't need to apologize." She turned to everyone in the Shepherds. "Now, everyone, get washed up. I shall prepare a feast!"

After the feast, Chrom and Lucas went out for a walk in the gardens, speaking to each other about battle strategies and other unimportant matters. Chrom's honed battle senses sensed someone was behind them. He turned and saw it was none other than Marth.

"Good evening, Marth." Chrom began. "Do you need something?" Marth was silent. There was a brief second of nothingness, then Marth drew her sword. Chrom and Lucas drew theirs accordingly and prepared their battle stance.

"I'm about to save your life." She silently spoke. "From him." There was a rustling in the bushes and unexpectedly, Marth backflipped and as an assassin approached the trio, Marth landed behind the assassin and slashed his back. "I believe this proof shoud suffice." Lucas silently weighed the possibility that Marth was psychic. Out of nowhere. Another assassin appeared, and, unfortunately, Marth hadn't predicted this. He sidestepped, but slipped on the 1st assassin's sword. Lucas noticed and quickly rushed to his aid. Too late. The assassin slashed downward, cutting off Marth's mask, she fell into Lucas' arms and he stared at her. Chrom quickly reacted and killed the 2nd assassin.

"You... you're a girl." He was mesmerized by her beauty, and was mentally slapping himself for not noticing her voice the previous times he had met her.

"And quite the actress. Honestly, I'm surprised you hadn't noticed until now." They stared at each other for quite a while.

"Ahem." Chrom cleared his throat to relieve the awkward situation. The sudden interruption scared Lucas and he accidentally dropped Marth.

"Sorry!" Lucas blushed and helped Marth up. Out of nowhere, an explosion was heard in the distance, coming from the direction of the castle. Chrom looked at Lucas and Lucas nodded, then the trio ran to Emmeryn's aid.

Lucas couldn't stop thinking about Marth.


	2. Cloud's New Life

**Author's Note: Instead of making a new chapter, I decided to change Chapter One and take out the Invisible String's chapter part. I thought it was unnecessary.**

This chapter will follow up on Cloud when he first came to Ylisse. Oh yeah. There's gonna be some bad language in this chapter.

"Damn. There's no sign of my stuff or civilization. Where on Gaia am I?" Cloud grumbled to himself. Ironically, he's nowhere on Gaia. Cloud's clothes were ripped and damp and his hair was drooping down from the water, but it was still somewhat spiky. The back of his head was bleeding. He had no sword or materia, items, nor gil. He had nothing but the clothes on his back, figuratively speaking. The tornado ripped the left side of his SOLDIER uniform off and his right pant leg was torn off below the knee. Cloud was scratched up pretty bad, but nothing beyond repair. He spotted some light in the distance.

"That must be a town..." He couldn't see very well from his concussion. He ran to the light.

When he reached the town, he asked a dark-skinned woman, "Do you know where I can get information and jobs in this area."

"You should try the pub. Though I wouldn't recommend it, I doubt you would survive in there." The woman stated looking at his beaten-up clothing. Cloud thanked her and entered the pub. He approached the bartender and sad down at the bar table.

"What's your poison, stranger?" the barkeep asked, while wiping a glass.

"What is this town?" Cloud interjected.

"Culcheth. In the Plegian Empire." He answered, annoyed. "Now what do you want."

"Do you got a list of bounties or jobs?" Cloud questioned. The barkeep handed him a piece of parchment full of jobs with their respective informations.

'Farmer, Cowherder, Carpenter' Cloud thought to himself, 'Why are all these jobs so old and boring. Come to think about it, why are these jobs written on parchment, and why are there pubs? Why is everyone here wearing metallic armour of some sort?' Cloud could only deduct that this place was far from Midgar, and technology of any kind.

"Hey you, faggot sitting at the bar, why are you dressed like that. What job do you do for a living?" A man behind Cloud rudely asked. Cloud turned and saw a heavily armoured man with dark skin pointing at him.

"I'm a mercenary, and I was caught in a storm." Cloud mumbled.

"Oh really now, I thought you were some sort of man-whore" The man sneered. Cloud wasn't in the mood for bullshit and he punched the man in the head. Even though the man was wearing a steel helmet, Cloud's fist killed him on the spot.

Everyone went silent, and Cloud took the man's steel great-sword and his satchel full of gold coins. 'Hmm. Money here isn't gil. I wonder where I could be?' Cloud continued to suspect his exact location. He opened the bag and handed some gold to the bartender and gave him some words of thanks, then left the bar. Cloud was stopped when another man behind him yelled,

"HEY YOU! You just killed our General. No man kills a Plegian General and lives to tell the tale!" A group of lesser armoured men approached Cloud, spears in hand, ready to make a pincushion out of him. Cloud grunted and swung his great-sword horizontally, cleanly beheading one of the soldier. The rest of the soldiers screamed and scurried off like mice.

Cloud dragged the dismembered man's body away from public view and looted the man's belongings, including clothing and armour. Cloud was now fully dressed in blue Plegian combat clothing and boots with shoulder, elbow and knee guards with an iron breastplate in the middle. Anyone could've mistaken him for a Plegian soldier now, except he wasn't wearing the helmet, as it was covered in blood, and was lighter-skinned than pretty much everyone one in the empire.

Cloud reached into his pocket and grabbed the parchment full of jobs. He saw one that said: Lord Validar recruiting all mercenaries and assassins for a ransacking band. Will raid villages and castles. 7,000 gold monthly pay. Food and shelter provided. Enlist at Plegian Castle! Cloud decided to accept this job and headed for the Plegian Castle.

In a week's time, Cloud joined Validar's Mercenary band, and for 2 years, he earned his living through the life of crime. Eventually, Validar stated to his group that their next mission was to raid Lady's Emmeryn's castle. The group headed to Ylissitol.

The night before the raid, Cloud sat around the fire as the rest of the band was asleep in their tents. He was silently eating this weird, rat-like thing, roasted until it tasted like charcoal.

"So, you're an ex-soldier, huh?" A man with light hair asked as he sat right next to Cloud. Judging by his clothing, he was a thief.

"Yeah..." Cloud mumbled.

The man extended his hand toward Cloud and stated, "I'm Gaius." Cloud shook his hand and when back to eating the roasted rat-on-a-stick. "So what made you want to join a raid against your own country?"

"What do you mean?" Cloud asked.

"Well, I only figured. You don't look Plegian, you look like you're from Ylissitol." Gaius added.

'So that's where we're going. Ylissitol.' Cloud thought to himself. 'This "Lady Emmeryn" must be their queen.'

"Hello?" Gaius waved his hand in front of Cloud's face.

"Oh. No, I'm not from Ylisse. I was born in Nibelheim, but I spent the majority of my life in Midgar."

"Sounds foreign." Gaius got up and stretched "Oh well, I'm gonna go steal from our other members. Don't worry, I won't steal from you. Probably. G'Night!" Gaius left into the darkness, and Cloud threw his meal into the fire to keep it from dying.

"I better go to sleep too. Who knows what's gonna happen tomorrow." Cloud yawned and went to his tent.

Tomorrow was gonna change his life.

**Author's Note: This chapter was somewhat longer than normal. I normally keep my chapters around 1.000 words. I wanted to explain how Cloud fared in this new strange world. Thanks for reading. Please leave a review!**


	3. Emmeryn's Assassination Attempt

**Author's Note: This chapter will revolve around Lucas and Chrom again. I don't own neither games, blah blah, don't sue me please.**

There was a gaping hole in the castle walls and a group of mercs and assassins were pouring in the castle yard. They had already advanced far into the castle, but the shepherds, minus Chrom and Lucas, had kept them away from Emmeryn.

"Chrom! We need you to help protect this side of Emmeryn's room!" Sully instructed to Chrom. Sully, Frederick, and Stahl were keeping the enemies from getting too near.

"Right!" Chrom yelled back. "Lucas, go with Sumia and protect the other side. Marth, I trust you're strong enough to protect the middle. Can you stay near Emmeryn and guard her?"

"Can do." Marth ran to the center and took a defensive stance.

"Okay Shepherds! Protect Emmeryn at all costs!" Chrom boomed and the battle began. Lucas and his mini-squad took the defensive while Chrom and co. advanced further.

"Kellam, Sully, Frederick!" Chrom called out, "Keep advancing! We need to take down the mastermind behind this coup, then the rest will scatter!" The three nodded in confirmation and left Chrom. Chrom just finished off the last of the mercs in the area when he noticed a young man entering the dining room area. Judging by his attire, he was a thief, so Chrom decided to take care of him first before reinforcing the front line.

"Hey. You. Stop right where you are." He entered the dining room and found the man stuffing his face full of candies and pastries.

"Woah woah woah." The man put his hands up and dropped the muffin in his hand. "Don't you got some other brigands to fight, Prince Chrom."

"Oh, so you know who I am," Chrom raised his sword. "So, how 'bout you tell me why you're here."

"I was hungry and I noticed that no one was eating the food, so I just helped himself" the man replied, looking guilty

"No, no, why are you AND your group invading the castle?" Chrom threatened him again with his sword to his throat.

"Hey, buddy, believe it or not, we want to put food on the table too. Like my buddy in my squad, he doesn't know where he's at; he's never heard of Plegia nor Ylisse, he just wants to go home. Or me for example, I thought we were just here to rob the Queen, not murder her. She such a sweet lady, so instead of fighting, I decided to just be a pacifist."

"You seem like a reasonable man, if you join us in our fight, I can promise your safety after the battle; we'll drop all charges of your previous criminal acts." Chrom offered.

"Well, I'm gonna need you to sweeten the deal."

"How much are you looking for?"

"300."

"That's relatively cheap. Sure thing." Chrom threw him a bag of money.

"What is this? A joke?" Gaius laughed and threw the money back.

"It's all here! 300 gold pieces, it's yours."

"No, no, no... 300 hard candies. I don't want some filthy currency" Gaius held out his hand, waiting for the payment.

"Well, my sister gave me these ones, but I never ate them, so they're a bit stale." Chrom threw him another bag full of jawbreakers, peppermints, and what-nots. Gaius inspected the bag and smiled.

"Pleasure doing business with you." And then he grabbed his sword and left the dining room. Chrom alongside left.

The shepherds were winning the battle, it seemed, as no more mercs were seen advancing toward Emmeryn. Lucas and his forces advanced with Chrom's forces to quickly finish off the stragglers of the battle.

Just then, Sumia flew to Chrom to give him the report of the battle.

"Captain Chrom!" She yelled and landed next to him. "I bring bad news! Both Lucas' troops and your squad were wiped out! There were only 1 merc left, minus the leader, and we had them surrounded. We hadn't realized how strong the last one was. He single handedly overpowered us! There were no casualties, but we had to do a tactical retreat. Lucas is still fighting him as we speak. I suggest you should assist him."

"Will do, Sumia. Can you give me a lift to the front lines?" Chrom asked, and she nodded and they flew to the outer wall of the castle, where the final merc and Lucas were fighting.

.-=~=-.

Lucas was panting as the combined forces of the leader and the merc were far greater than his own. The only reason Lucas was still alive was because he was using magic to keep them at a distance, but the leader was just as adept in the magical arts, so he could block any attack Lucas sent at them.

The blonde merc rushed Lucas down with his great-sword in attempt to finish him off. Lucas was agile, but clearly not agile enough. To dodge his swing, he had to jump backwards, but unfortunately, his leg was slashed in the process.

There was no more escaping for him, as he writhed in pain, the merc jumped at least 5 feet into the sky, with his sword raised in his hands, clearly to do a final downward blow to kill Lucas. He closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

Then, out of nowhere, Chrom fell from the sky while the merc did and horizontally block the blade from cutting Lucas in two. Chrom was struggling immensely to stand his ground as his sword was still pressing against the enemy's. They both stood there, trying to overpower the other, waiting until someone's sword would give slide off. It seemed the merc was going to win, until a metallic snap was heard, and the great-sword was broken.

Now with only a hilt of a sword, the merc threw what was left of the sword away, but didn't have a backup blade.

"Plegian Craftsmanship; it's strong, but it breaks easily. It's a shame, this is the end of the line for you." Chrom spoke, and he lept to do the famous Ylissian downward strike.

And then he caught it. The Falchion. The merc caught the Falchion blade with his two hands. His hands started to bleed, but it gave him leverage to pull Chrom inward, and give a powerful kick to Chrom's breastplate, which shattered on impact.

Chrom flew a good 10 feet and rolled across the floor. Both Lucas and Chrom were no match for this man, no... this monster. Chrom struggled to get up, so he used his Falchion to prop him up. Chrom rushed forward and gave out a battle cry as an attempt to muster all his remaining courage, the blonde man rushed forward as well.

All of a sudden, the man was shot in the back by a arcthunder bolt, fired by none other than Lucas. He stumbled long enough for Chrom to diagonally slash the man. A large gash was in the man's chest and his soldier armour was broken. He fell on his knees, and Chrom prepared to stab him through the chest.

"Chrom, stop it." A lady's voice was heard. It was Emmeryn! She elegantly walked over to Chrom and the bleeding man. "Chrom, may I borrow your sword?" Chrom handed her the Falchion.

"Tell me, sir, what brings you to my castle?" Emmeryn asked him. He didn't respond. His hand was pressing against his wound and he finally spoke.

"I've been working as a sword-for-hire for at least 2 years. I get hired and I do my job. Simple as that." He muttered.

"Very well. Here, take this." Emmeryn handed him the Falchion. "Now you can kill me and finish your job." She smiled sweetly at him, and the man took the sword.

"EMM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Chrom screamed and tried to stop the man, but Emmeryn grabbed him and pulled Chrom backwards. Lissa screamed, Lucas flinched, and the rest of the shepherds closed their eyes.

The merc raised the sword with his right hand high in the sky, ready to cut Emmeryn vertically.

"Yes! Cloud! KILL HER!" The leader of the assassins screamed with delight.

"I... can't... do it." He responded.

"YOU FOOL!" The leader charged up a magic shot and aimed it at Emmeryn. Quickly, the merc spun around and threw the Falchion, and it lodged itself into the leader's chest. The leader choked on his blood and fell on his knees. He was shocked that he would betray him like that.

"Go to hell, bastard!" Cloud yelled.

Chrom ran up to the leader, pulled the Falchion out of him, and swiftly beheaded him. It seemed that all of Ylisse went silent for a good 10 seconds, then Emmeryn hugged the merc and whispered in his ear,

"Thank you, Cloud." Chrom sheathed his sword and walked up to him. He shook his hand and patted him on the back.

"You may have injured my shepherds, but in the end, you proved yourself. Now let's get you fixed up." All the Shepherds, plus Cloud and Emmeryn, walked over to the dining room to rest and eat what Gaius didn't. Lucas was talking to Marth, Stahl and Vaike were chatting, and everyone seemed in good moods. Gaius walked up to Chrom and Cloud and said,

"Chrom! It seems you met my buddy, Cloud!"

"Oh, so you two know each other?" Chrom responded.

"Yup! Didn't I tell you about my friend who didn't remember much, nor where he's at?"

"I see." He turned to face Cloud. "Well, you would get along fine with Lucas then. He's our tactician, and like you, he suffered from mild Amnesia." He pointed over to Lucas. "We should consider turning the Shepherds into an amnesia rehab facility" Chrom joked, and Cloud didn't respond so he nervously laughed. Cloud simply walked toward Lucas.

"Huh. He really took your advice." Gaius commented.

"Yeah, he's not exactly an extrovert, now is he?" Chrom replied.

Cloud interrupted Lucas and Marth's conversation.

"Lucas, is it?" Cloud asked him. Lucas nodded. "Look, I'm sorry what I did to your leg"

"Hey, Cloud, water under the bridge." Lucas lifted his pants and showed him that the cut was already fully healed.

"How'd you fix it so fast?" Cloud asked.

"Lissa, over there." He pointed to a young, quirky looking girl. "She's a bit weird, but she can heal almost any wound your body can sustain. As long as you're not dead, she could probably fix you up."

"Heal anything, huh." Cloud took note of it, and walked away. Cloud left through the front gate and no one noticed. As he continued walking, he was stopped by Emmeryn.

"Hello Cloud. Why are you leaving? The feast's inside." Emmeryn wobbled over to Cloud. She was a bit tipsy from drinking some wine.

"I got to get going. Thanks for having me, I guess. I gotta find me a new job now that I killed my employer."

"Go figure. Well, I know a certain group of sheep herders who can use a guy like you." Emmeryn hinted.

"I'm gonna have to pass, I'm not into domestic farming."

"No, silly, I meant Chrom and his "Shepherds". He was looking for you, he wanted you to join, along with Gaius, but you already left."

"No thanks. I'm from Plegia, your enemy, remember?"

"You don't look Plegian. Oh well. Please, can you join. For me?" Cloud stared at her for a bit with her as she pleaded with her puppy dog eyes.

Cloud sighed. "Fine. But I'm gonna need some new armour and a sword."

"Follow me." She directed him toward the armory. When they entered, she grabbed something at threw it at Cloud.

"Here!" Cloud caught it and inspected it. "It's standard Ylissian Soldier Combat Armor. It's a bit on the heavier side, but I'm sure you won't mind."

Cloud removed his clothes and put on the new armour. Emmeryn blushed as he took off his shirt, but looked away to hide it. It felt relatively the same and Emmeryn dragged a particularly large and heavy broadsword and was struggling to give it to Cloud. Cloud just walked over and carried it with one hand.

"That..." She gasped for air. "...is what we call the Lohengrin. It's a custom made two-handed sword that was made for show, but you can bet that it's damn durable. It's made of custom forged steel, I doubt it will ever break in your lifetime." Cloud swung it around, like it was made of air.

"It's a bit light." He commented. "And it's not as long as my First Tsurugi, but I can make do."

"This 'First Tsurugi', it's a sword, right?" Emmeryn innocently asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Good, I thought you were referencing your genitalia." She smiled and walked away. Cloud looked utterly confused

She had a bit too much to drink tonight.

**Author's Note: I'm sorry if Emmeryn was acting a bit OOC. Sorry. And no, it's not gonna be CloudxEmmeryn. Sorry if I led you to believe that. Cloud's gonna fall for a ****_different_**** girl. **


	4. Camping Near Southtown

Author's Note: Thanks for reading my story. Crossovers don't get alot of attention. :C

Just a short filler chapter...

To Guest: Well, you can't expect Cloud just to search for Sephiroth alone in an unfamiliar land, with no money or companions... Also, if you read the summary, it states that Cloud fragmented his memories (again?)

Back to the story!

Dawn came sooner than expected and the Shepherds found themselves preparing before heading out. Emmeryn was greeting everyone with "Good Morning"s, Lucas was rather depressed from the absence of Marth, and Chrom was talking to Gaius, Panne, and Cloud.

"I know you guys are new here, so I'll give you a small run-through of the rules. Protect your comrades, friendly fire isn't tolerated, try to help out setting up and cleaning camp, no stealing..." Chrom glanced and Gaius. "and so on."

"Yeah, yeah..." Gaius squirmed, and he and Panne left. Cloud stayed behind and asked Chrom:

"Where are we heading?"

"South-east, to the rural parts of Ylisse. We patrol the land, take out bandits, etcetera. Currently, we're trying to end the war against Plegia, and by wandering Ylisse, I guess we do our part by taking down bandits and sometimes small invasion armies."

Cloud nodded in response and the Shepherds said their goodbyes to Emmeryn and the people of Ylissitol, and headed West, wrapping around the mountains to reach the South-East area. Eventually, they headed South, toward Southtown. Dusk finally came and the Shepherds set up camp.

"All riders, go 1 kilometer away from camp and scout for wild animals and enemies. Lucas, Panne, Virion, Gaius, and Vaike, can you find some wild game? Mages, stay at camp to start a fire, everyone else, please gather some firewood."

The shepherds did as they were told and spread out. The riders galloped away and the hunters and gatherers went to the forest to look for food. The hunters followed Panne, as it looked like she knew the area like the back of her hand. Cloud just looked for the biggest tree he could find.

2 hours past and the riders returned, no sign of enemies in the outskirts of the camp. The gatherers brought back many bushels of firewood back to camp. Cloud was no where to be seen.

The hunters, meanwhile, were having a bit of trouble finding food.

"Panne, my dear. Can you direct us to the lair of the delicious beasts?" Virion asked.

Panne pointed toward a riverbank. "Just check that area." Panne left to check another area, and Gaius didn't stay with the group.

"Hey! Food! Virion, can you shoot it?" Vaike exclaimed as he saw a group of rabbits, and an elk.

"I do not kill defenceless beings." Virion whisked his head away, then his stomach growled. "But I'll make an exception just this once." Panne returned with an armful of berries when she saw Lucas and Vaike carrying a dead elk, and Virion was carrying dead rabbits by their tales.

Panne forced herself not to gag. She turned away, and looked red-hot with anger.

"Oh. I forgot. Taguels are rabbit-like creatures. So its like... we're eating mini-Panne's" Vaike commented, and Lucas chuckled. "Anyways, can you help us carry this Elk back, Panne? Panne...?"

Panne stormed off back to camp, and 10 minutes later, Virion, Vaike, and Lucas made it back to camp with the food.

"Great! We got some food to last us a couple nights." Chrom clapped his hands together and smiled. "Wait. Where's Gaius?"

Gaius was still in the woods.

"Well, looky what we have here..." He mischievously smiled. Gaius found a dozen of dead soldiers and started to loot there bodies.

"Trinkets, about two-thousand gold, an Arcwind book. Nothing too special." Gaius carried the loot back to camp when he heard a thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The thumping was getting closer and closer. Gaius held his breath and prayed that it would go away. Fortunately, it did. He took a peek, but it was so dark. He could recognize a thick, twenty foot tree-looking thing heading toward the lighted area.

"Oh crap. It's heading for the camp." Gaius whispered to himself. He dropped all the loot and ran back to the campsite.

When he arrived, everyone was worrying about him, and were relieved at the sight of their orange-haired comrade.

"Where were you, Gaius. Your team arrived here half an hour ago." Chrom scolded.

"T-There's a t-thing! In the woods! Like a small tree! It's heading to camp as we s-spea-!"

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

'What is it, a treant? That's just an urban legend.' Chrom thought. "Guys, raise your weapons."

The shepheds silently took out their weapons, and aimed it at the source of the thumping sound. Lissa hid inside her tent, and the night turned dead silent.

"What's up. What did I miss?" A familiar voice rang out and the "creature" stepped out of the darkness of the forest.

It was Cloud, carrying a tree shaft. More than 4 times his height.

"Why is everyone's weapons drawn? Is there a monster? I didn't notice one. Anyways, I got the firewood you asked for, Chrom."

Cloud set the large tree stump next to the pile of sticks everyone gathered. Finally, someone else beside Cloud spoke.

"Dammit Gaius. You made us all paranoid." Lucas still laughed, and everyone exhaled in relief.

"Thanks for the wood, Cloud. I don't think we needed this much, though."

Finally everyone joined in on Lucas' laugh, and they roasted their food in harmony.

In the forest...

"Damn it. That thief blew our cover."

"Now, now. We can get them next time."

The two treant monsters stopped spying on the Shepherds and went back to dwelling in the forest.

Author's Note: Probably a short filler chapter. Whatevs. If you didn't get it, it was a mini-plot twist that Gaius was telling the truth about the tree monsters. A "treant" was a tree monster in Dungeons and Dragons if you didn't know. Wanna know how it looks like?

Here:

/?q=treant

Thanks for reading.


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